The Global Connection

Thursday, July 7, 2016

For the past few months I've been working on generating my own, professional looking website. It is a constant work in progress but today I would like to share it with you as it is.

In a few days, on July 12th, I will be starting my solo-travel journey to South America, starting in Belize. I will be consistently blogging, making podcasts (recorded conversations with other travelers), and taking photos all along the way. My journey will last at the very least two years, but hopefully, with the help of you and the new website, indefinitely.

Most of my old posts will be available on the new website and I will be having links to where you can find them on the blogspot posts.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

The
1960's are well-known as an era, sometimes a failed era, of a psychedelic
renaissance which was nicely accompanied by protests, a sense of revolution,
and an anti-war/government agenda. Psychedelics, with their mind-bending, eerie
clarity made people think about things in a different light, specifically their
own culture which was and is continually being fueled by war. They broke down
barriers and made people question things left unquestioned. Like, why are we
going to war? Why am I being forced to go kill people who are apart of my own
species, my family? Music, being a psychedelic in its own form, was a central
part in this outbreak of societal change. Music rippled throughout the land,
showing things left unseen, even without the use of any psychotropic substance.
Music can rip through to the core of individuals and help spark societal change. One song that helped spark that change and continues to today is "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.

"There's
something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a
gun over there, telling me I got to beware..." This line shows the
relationship between the police and the citizens for whom they are supposed to
serve and protect. Police are there to keep us in line, and as they shows us, violently. Sure, they
are here to protect us from those pesky vigilantes and even ourselves from when
we cross over to the wrong side of the law, but laws in place today are not
inherently moral, nor did I or you have much say in making most of them.

It is
completely legal to march a few thousand men and women to another side of the
globe, kill thousands of people, and all for the sake of power. However, if you
are outside the few States that has legalized it, it is completely illegal to
smoke a plant. Or, if you live anywhere on this Earth besides Spain, it is
illegal to consume the eye-opening, soul shifting, psilocybin mushroom. But if
you want to drink or smoke tobacco until you die, go right ahead. No one is
stopping you. In fact, they encourage you.

Growing
up in a world where there is war, famine, innocent women and children being bombed by United States' drones, people
starving to death while others have enough to buy a private jet, and homeless
people filling our streets, the youth are usually the first to speak out about
such atrocities. Those of us that have been here longer than most have either
given up or are used to it, and those younger than, say sixteen, are most
likely unaware of the problems at hand. Springfield
illustrates this beautifully with: "Young people speaking their minds.
Getting so much resistance from behind." The youth speaking out has been a
fairly common theme throughout history, but there are definite leaps here and
there. The 1960's was one of them. And, mainly due to the internet and the
rising psychedelic culture today, it is
happening again.

Some
believe we are going through a psychedelic revolution and this time with
science on our side. There have been countless studies done on LSD,
psilocybin mushrooms,
and MDMA (to name a few) that have shown to work incredibly well for treating
depression, alcoholism, anxiety, PTSD (specifically for veterans), and even with
helping terminally-ill cancer patients with helping ease their anxiety with
their impending death.

If a long-haired 23 year-old with oozing hippy vibes
told you that psychedelics are going to change the world, you probably would write them off immediately. But when you have a sincere, touching
video of someone dealing with cancer and depression telling you how psilocybin
mushrooms has helped their lives immensely, you might just have to believe
them... and possibly cry. Not only that, but there are more and more studies coming out everyday showing the healing powers of psychedelics.

Through recent research, psychedelics are now
shown to help with many psychological issues millions of people face with today. Not
only that, but psychedelics can open up ideas to new ways of thinking and
living. It is obvious the current track we are going down is not working.
Scientists say if we continue down this same path, we will lose our wildlife
and eventually our own species. We have already lost half of our wildlife in
the past 40 years thanks to human consumption, the main fuel to our beloved
free market, capitalistic economy. Psychedelics open your eyes to ideas like perhaps
there is no democracy and we are being played on a mass scale. Or how can there
even be a true democracy if we do not vote for the real things that matter like
war, bail-outs, etc.? Why do I have to go work? Why do I have to pay to live
and in addition pay for tuition? How can there be a democracy if there are
things going on behind closed doors that we know nothing about (the NSA scandal
and many others)? And this is just touching the surface with a psychedelic trip. Psychedelics make you feel connected with everything and everyone around you, especially nature. And what do we need more than to feel a sincere, deep connection with nature? Take enough, and you become one with the universe. You see that everyone is connected all the time and separation is only an illusion made through the filtration of the mind. You see perfectly that we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself one at a time through you.

If you are hesitant of using any sort of "drug" (although, if you think about it, you are drugs) to achieve this experience and state of being, there are many natural ways to do so; meditation, yoga, holotropic breathing, and sensory deprivationto name a few. If you are confused on what to do with meditation, you can check out my previous blog post onHow To Meditate. Psychedelics and meditation put together are an incredibly powerful tool and can allow the experience to go deeper and deeper. I recommend meditation before, during, and after the ingestion of any psychedelic, but of course, the use of psychedelic is not "needed".

I
think we need to take the advice from the band Buffalo Springfield and "...stop. Hey, what's
that sound? Everybody look - what's going down?" Indeed we do need to take
a second and stop. Stop everything and really take a fresh look at ourselves
and the world around us (which in-turn is
us). Things are getting out of hand, yes, but this Earth is still in our hands.
Right now, scientists around the globe would argue we are at a pinnacle moment
in history. Either we go the easy way out and do nothing, leaving behind a
world uninhabitable for humans and most living creatures, or we change our ways
drastically and use science and reason to our advantage, not to our
destruction. This requires a sort of inner-revolution, a revolution of the
psyche. To expand our
consciousness to the entirety of experience, rather than a small blip of it,
our inner narrative. It is time to step out of our minds and into reality
through a simple act of surrender. Fear is what is stopping us from saving the
world. It is time to face it. With the help of controversial psychedelics (used
in a respectful, safe, professional, ritualistic manner), the art of meditation, timeless music like
"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, and many other songs
that are coming out today (although they may be hard to find in this trashed
culture), together we can change the world. This is our time, in fact, it is
the only time. And it starts now.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Nothing can ever hold you down. Once it comes, it goes. This is the fundamental truth of reality: impermanence. And that which is Watching the Happening is the Happening. And what is the Happening? Well.. it is happening right now, no? This is all there is and you are it. This is the eternal reality. What you are is that, this, now. There is no ego keeping you from enlightenment.In order to have what is you must have what is not. Black implies white. Something implies nothing. Nothing keeps something alive, new, fresh. Something is constantly changing, moving, disappearing into the void of Nothing and spawning from the void of Nothing. And so it all comes from Nothing and returns to Nothing. And yet, we hold onto this idea of ourselves as a self talking to itself, located somewhere in the head, somewhere right behind the eyes, watching this is all go by; forming this image, this memory of experience, a conversation. But with who are you talking to? If you are the one talking then who is the one listening? Which one are you? Who are you?

The skin is not a barrier to the "outside" world. It is a bridge with who you are.

Each The moment is fresh, new. Each The moment we are forgiven, liberated. Every thought that comes immediately goes. Every moment that comes immediately goes. This is the true nature of reality. If you see this, which you do unknowingly or not, you are free. You are always and already free. This is so.

If you are caught in a mental loop of thought; struggling, frustratingly trying to clear your mind, you are only caught in the memory of it. How do you let go of a memory? It has already passed.

And so we create this image of ourselves and the reality we confront. The Watcher (I) and the Watched (the "outside" world). But if you really, truly watch, the Watcher is being Watched, no? See for yourself. The next thought that pops in your mind, listen to it, watch it. Do you see how hard this is? Once it comes, it goes. You cannot be with thought. You can only watch its arrival and its inevitable departure. Be with that.Nothing stays, there is only the echo. And when you look, the echo has already passed. So be in a state of constant change, a void. Move with it all.Because of the impermanent nature of reality, we hold onto this image, this echo of ourselves, therefore distancing ourselves from reality. The image (who you think you are) is but a delay, an echo of the Whole, Nothingness. And so we hold on to the echo for in order to have what is we must include what is not.

What has been is being echoed now from the now always now.

For centuries this illusory notion of our identity has been implanted in us. A meme spread to the masses. And we are at a critical tipping point right now, both individually and socially, we are at a dead-end. What happens when you are at a dead-end? You have to stop. And when you stop trying to control the uncontrollable, you are free. You see, we spend so much energy on trying to make everything a certain way, when all there is the Way.

You are but one distinct ripple in an infinitely rippling pond of consciousness. Like all ripples, you will return to your original state, our inherent Buddha Nature, the fundamental nature of all Beings. The fundamental nature of you. The fundamental nature of me. This is the impending shift in consciousness. And it starts now.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Meditation has been used in spiritual and religious circles for centuries while the benefits have been unseen to the planet at large. However, the blindfold has since been taken off and with the help of modern day scientific research and the internet, we now know the studiable benefits of meditation.

The video below does a quick 3-minute rundown on the benefits. I don't know about you, but after watching this I immediately started meditating.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Terence McKenna was one of the greatest minds of the last century. He was a philosopher, a psychonaut, and an all around mind-bending, hilarious individual that apparently would talk to "machine elves" on high does of magic mushrooms.

McKenna is no longer with us physically, but if anything, he is more with us than ever before. Terence is spreading like wild fire across the internet and for good reason. Here are 8 videos of the great Terence Mckenna!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

In merely 15 minutes, this could save yours or a loved one's life. For so long stress has been seen as the enemy and is bad for your health. What if our very belief towards stress is what causes these health issues? So please, take a moment, and watch this compassionate, insightful, and inspiring TED talk that could help shift the planet to a more loving place.